Development of a Survey Instrument to Assess Pharmacists' Knowledge and Attitudes About the Use of Opioids in Chronic Pain

Abstract

Objectives: To conduct a survey instrument on a pharmacists’ knowledge of and attitudes toward dispensing narcotic medications for the management of chronic pain. Methods: A focus group of 39 pharmacy managers for a local chain drug store reviewed 6 knowledge questions and 10 attitude statements for content validity, clarity and readability. The results of their responses to the survey and other comments were tabulated and analyzed. Results: The focus group sample was small and results were not statistically significant. Pharmacists were highly confident about their training, yet most did not score well on the test, especially those questions designed to distinguish between addiction, pseudo-addiction and tolerance. This limited knowledge may have been related to age since many of the wrong answers selected were based on older definitions. Several questions and statements were identified as ambiguous, plus having unclear directions or incorrect information. Focus group discussions confirmed the limited knowledge found in the survey and clarified pharmacist's responses to the attitude statements. Conclusions: What is clear from the literature and our study is that pharmacists' knowledge about chronic pain and the uses of opioids strongly influences their attitdues. Therefore, the survey questions and statements need to be reworded and restructured to specifically evaluate the relationship between pharmacists' knowledge and their attitudes.